Applicators for applying liquids to surfaces are broadly used in several industries such as the medical domain to treat or clean.
Hygiene, reliability, ease of use and safety are some of the desirable characteristics for such applicators.
One way to promote or improve the hygienic characteristics of an applicator may be by ensuring that the applicator can only be used once and then must be thrown away. Another way is by limiting environmental or user access to certain parts of the applicator.
Another consideration for fluid applicators is fluid flow. Fluid flow characteristics are an issue because providing excessive or insufficient amount of liquid on a surface can be detrimental or problematic to the fluid application purpose.
In addition, in particular for medicinal or antiseptic liquids it is desirable to reliably liberate the liquid at the moment of application. For desirable operation, the liquid applicator is often provided with an absorbent material to receive the liquid and then spread the liquid onto a surface. Liberating the liquid into the absorbent material can have several challenges. The absorbent material plays a role in the regulation of the liquid flow and the design of the container component can also affect the fluid flow. In addition, the relative orientation and the position of the different components of the applicator can influence the fluid flow and method of dispensing the liquid.
There are some known liquid applicators that use certain mechanisms to hold, liberate and apply the liquid. One known type of applicator is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,811 B2 (hereafter “Kaufman '811”). Kaufman '811 describes a hand-held dispensing applicator comprising a source of fluid, a frangible applicator tip attached to the fluid source, and an absorbent member attached to the frangible applicator tip. When the frangible applicator tip is broken, fluid flows from the source to the absorbent member, whereby the fluid is applied and spread on a surface. The frangible applicator tip may comprise a support element permanently connected to the fluid source, a relatively rigid tongue element extending outwardly of the support element, and a frangible region there-between. By deflecting the tongue element relative to the support element, the frangible region fractures to thereby permit fluid to flow from the fluid source into the attached absorbent member.
The Kaufman '881 applicator and method of operation have various limitations and disadvantages related to the deflection method and configuration of the tongue element. Having the tongue provide structural support for the absorbent member may also lead to inconsistent performance and complicated manufacture and design requirements.
Another known type of applicator is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/740,910, published under No. 2007/0286668 (hereafter “Kaufman '910”). Kaufman '910 describes several variants of a hand-held dispensing applicator. One of the variants illustrated in FIGS. 12-26 comprises a container with a tongue element and a stem piece containing a fracture anvil having a cruciform passage for receiving the tongue element when the container and stem piece are coupled together the cruciform passage and the tongue element engage to twist the tongue element at a weakened joinder location resulting in at least partial separation from the container to enable the liquid to flow into the stem piece toward an absorbent material.
Another fluid applicator with tongue-and-slot configuration is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,484 (hereafter “Osei '484”). Osei '484 describes a fluid applicator comprising a solution container having a frangible twist-off member and an applicator head having a receiving member that the twist-off member engages when the applicator head is rotated relative to the solution container to open the container at the twist-off member to enable fluid to flow from the solution container into the applicator head and to an applicating material.
The known fluid applicators have a number of disadvantages related to reliability, ease of use, safety, manufacturing and effective fluid application. There is a need for a liquid dispensing applicator that overcomes at least some of the disadvantages of what is known in this field.